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Local businesses set sights on expansion

Allyson Fiander, owner of Billy Vanilly, shows off her signature cupcake, the Billy Vanilly. The bakeshop owner has three locations: Topeka, Lawrence and Manhattan.

Research and knowing your demographic are vital in expanding your business, according to Billy Vanilly owner Allyson Fiander.

Hazel Hill Chocolates and Billy Vanilly are two Topeka sweet staples, but their owners agreed that expanding, especially in different cities, were a challenge.

Fiander, who owns two other Billy Vanilly shops — ones in Lawrence and Manhattan — said she always knew she wanted to grow her cupcake shop. She originally opened as Daddy Cakes in the clock tower building at Gage Center, but moved across the street to Gage Village after establishing herself.

She opened her second location in Lawrence in 2011, but she said she originally planned to expand sooner. After appearing on the reality show competition "Cupcake Wars," Fiander found out a California cupcake shop operated under the same name. She said after becoming entangled with the name issues, it would just be easier for everyone involved if she rebranded her store as Billy Vanilly in January 2011.

Fiander opened Billy Vanilly in Manhattan this year.

"I try to spend one day a week in each location," Fiander said when asked how she divides her time between the three shops. "Then, I spend two days doing administrative things. A lot of people are surprised I'm a loner — I'm the sole owner."

Lawrence seemed like an obvious choice to open one of her stores, she said. Looking at the demographics, such as gender and customer income, it was a perfect fit.

"My challenge was to create a concept without me being there every day," she said.

She has full-time managers at the locations, which eases her workload. For her next location, she said she has her sights set on Wichita.

"It's a growing market," she said.

Hazel Hill co-owner Nick Xidis and his wife, Terry, have been operating in Topeka for nearly 10 years and expanded to Manhattan last year.

Xidis said he and his wife felt the business was ready to expand in the past few years, plus their concern over the then-upcoming construction downtown factored into play. He said he wanted the new location to be close enough to transport the sweets they make in Topeka to the other store.

"I would rather be in a downtown specialty location rather than malls," he said.